Bogaerts getting it done for Red Sox

Sunday

BOSTON — It’s safe to say that Red Sox manager Alex Cora knew what he was doing when he told Xander Bogaerts in spring training that he needed to hit for more power and production.

Entering Sunday night’s game against Houston, Bogaerts had hit 21 home runs to tie his most in his five seasons in the majors and he had posted career highs of 41 doubles and 92 runs batted in to lead all shortstops in the latter two categories.

And there are still three weeks left in the regular season.

Cora met with Bogaerts, Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley in spring training to tell them that they were no different than Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa, the three young star infielders for Houston, where Cora was bench coach last year, and he wanted them to be more confident in themselves.

Cora remembered the opposite-field home run Bogaerts hit off Charlie Morton in the ALDS last year.

“I was like, ‘Wow, that’s impressive,’” Cora said. “And I felt that there was more in there and I challenged him. Those (Houston) guys, they show up every day, they want to be great every day. You can do the same thing.”

This year, Bogaerts is actually out-performing Correa. The Houston shortstop missed six weeks with a bad back and is hitting only .242 with 14 home runs and 62 RBI, quite a drop off from a year ago when he hit .315 with 24 home runs and 84 RBI.

“Obviously, he’s a great player,” Bogaerts said of Correa. “He is who he is and I am who I am. We’re both on good teams that are hopefully bound for the playoffs. I’m just here to help my team and focus on me helping.”

Cora didn’t have a hard time convincing Bogaerts to change his approach to hitting. He simply asked him who would become a free agent first among this group of young, star shortstops: Himself, Correa, Cleveland’s Francisco Lindor or the Dodgers’ Corey Seager.

“He tells me, ‘It’s me,’” Cora said. “I say, ‘Well you’re going to set the market, huh,’ and he smiles. He knows he’s a good player and we challenge him to hit fifth. We want him to drive the ball and he’s been doing that.”

Actually, Bogaerts has hit cleanup lately and he homered for the second game in a row on Saturday.

“No, I’m not actually surprised,” he said. “It’s just what I wanted to do, I guess. Either you want to have three hits in a game to right field, three ground balls to right field, or you want to try to hit the ball with more authority. It’s basically up to you to choose what type of player you want to be. I do prefer this.”

Bogaerts’ peers have noticed the change in him. Cora remembers how Lindor reacted when Bogaerts homered against Cleveland last month.

“Francisco is like, ‘Wow,’” Cora said. “They look up the numbers and they’re impressed. The other night, when he hit a home run to straight center, you see Carlos and Jose looking like, ‘That’s amazing,’ and then he goes deep (Saturday) and then they look at the numbers. You can see, they know, they know he’s a good player and I’m glad he’s having a good season.”

Bogaerts’ current .534 SLG, .880 OPS and 0.53 walk-strikeout ratio would also be career highs. His boost in production hasn’t come at the expense of his batting average either. He’s hitting .285, 12 points higher than last season, when his production fell off over the second half of the season after he was hit in the hand by a pitch.

Even before his hand injury, Bogaerts was known for tailing off after getting off to his fast starts. In 2016, he hit only .219 in August and .241 in September and October, but this season he hit .303 in August and he’s hitting .364 in September.

Entering Sunday, in his last 26 games, he’s hit .330 with 14 runs, nine doubles, a triple, five home runs and 24 RBI. He’s driven in 18 runs in his last 18 games and 27 runs in his last 28 games.

Bogaerts has been at his best with runners in scoring position, hitting .349 with a .437 OBP and a .729 SLG in those situations, including .404 with a .519 OBP and .825 SLG since June 30.

Those are a lot of numbers, but here is one more than might get overlooked: In 121 games, Bogaerts has committed only eight errors.

“I don’t think a lot of people talk about his defense,” Sox utility man Brock Holt said, “because of what he means to us offensively, but he’s a really good defensive shortstop and he’s proven it this year.”

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